Breaking the Wall

A.M. Ran with Jeff. 10.2 in 1:17:38. The stomach felt good, but I felt a little weak from Saturday's adventures. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:44. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:00. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:47.

A.M. Found Jeff on the trail. 10.25 in 1:20:00. We did 4x200. The plan was 34, but I knew it would be closer to 32 as Jeff is an overachiever, but that was OK with me since I wanted to test the effectiveness of my massage and scraping.

The temperature was 27 degrees, and I was wearing pants and a jacket. The first one did not go so well as it was dark, my pants were falling down, my clogs felt loose, and I was not mentally ready to be going that fast. Jeff did around 30, I ended up with 32.3. 

On the second one I was physically and mentally ready to go hard. I tucked in my jacket into the pants to keep them from falling down, I focused on staying with Jeff, and I was mentally ready to move my feet in a way that would not invite the clogs to fall off. A slight dorsi-flexion  of the foot  through most of the off-the-ground phase does the job. It might even be good for the form as it allows a more explosive plantar-flexion once you hit the ground. Some world-class distance runners run like this during the kick and possibly the whole way, but it becomes more apparent during the kick.

However, on the second one we missed the mark and went too far. Jeff had me gapped by about 3 meters when we realized we had been running for 35 seconds and turned off the engines.  But even with jogging our 300 split was 57 seconds.

The third one went very well. The sun had come up. I was able to stay within 3 meters of Jeff and finished in 29.7. I was very excited about that. But then on the fourth I stayed within a meter and managed 29.5!

For me this is a very significant development. My 200 meter PR is 27.5 on the track in spikes at the age of 17 when I was doing weights, bounding, and form drills. The trail even in perfect conditions is probably at least a good second slower than the track. Pants, jacket, and below freezing temperatures slow you down some as well. I checked the blog and it appears that 29.5 is an all-time PR for the trail. Previous PR was 30.7.

So I am definitely seeing a top-end speed improvement. This is exciting. You can get into better shape by running more miles and run a better 5 K, but you cannot run a better 200 through any form of "cheating". By "cheating" I mean materializing the existing Quality X through some form of training into a better performance vs actually increasing Quality X. You can also "cheat" by sprint-specific training, but I have not done any of that recently except the occasional test efforts themselves, which would not be enough to have any training effect. So I would say this workout provided more evidence that my massage and scraping has been effective.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:44. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:40. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:36. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:47.

A.M. 10.3 in 1:18:43. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:17. Julia ran the first 1.5 in  12:12. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:45. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:14.

A.M. 10.3 in 1:15:50. Saw Kirk on the trail and ran an 81 quarter to catch him. Ran with him a bit, and then did 0.75 in 3:59.7 to feel 5:20 pace. The right clog developed its first hole at a little over 400 miles.

P.M. 3.25 with Benjamin including 2 miles in 15:17 with the last mile in 6:48. 1.5 with Julia in 12:42. 0.5 with Joseph. 0.25 with Jacob.

A.M. 10 in 1:18:43. It was snowing. Met Jeff on the trail. 

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:51. Julia ran 1.5 in 12:44 with us. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:33. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:39.

A.M. 16.18 with Jeff in 1:44:01 (6:25.7 avg). I decided the detour was adding only 0.04 each way instead of 0.05 because we hit 1 mile + detour in 5:57 while consistently hitting 86 quarters in the measured area.

This was a recovery long run, if there is such a thing. Part of the reason was that Benjamin and I were going to the chess camp later today. Part of the reason was to avoid overtraining from the hard 20 in the last 2 weeks, with the one last week done on a sick stomach. So the plan was to maintain about 6:40 average, and then run a bit quicker in the last couple of miles.

We pretty much followed the plan, except we got a little anxious to be done and hit the gas with 3.91 to go covering the distance in 22:31 (5:45.5 average). In the way of Soviet era style 1913 comparison bragging, this was slightly faster than my average race pace in the Thanksgiving 4 miler. The quarters varied from 86 to 89 in the first 1.5 miles (8:48 at 1.5), then they became a steady 86 until we got to the bridges and the uphill afterwards in the last mile. We put in the same effort but it produced only 88 and 89. Then Jeff shifted gears (I responded) and we did 81 and 79 for the last two quarters. Last mile was 5:37.

It was a lot easier to run fast with a properly functioning stomach. 5:56 pace felt like a jog. 5:44 felt comfortable. 5:20 was bearable even with the turns, at least for half a mile. I was happy that Jeff did not drop me in the last mile.

About 7.8 into the run we caught up to Luz. I saw the opportunity to help her break the mental block and challenged her to run with us until she could not. She managed about 0.2 at 6:40 pace. Some of what I consider to be my most significant growing experiences happened when I ran with guys that are much faster than me without them slowing down for me. There is some form of communication that takes place when you do that. You learn something very valuable that is difficult to describe even if that one race ends up slower because you were not fit to run that pace yet and it broke you down.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:40. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:55. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. Jacob had a sore knee and did not run.

Day of rest. Went to church. It was a Fast Sunday. We had a Fast and Testimony meeting. Then a Sunday school class - the lesson was on scriptures, followed by the lesson in the Elder's Quorum which was on the talk by Elder Oaks on reverence while partaking of the Sacrament. 

A.M. Ran 10.18 with Jeff in 1:22:14. Did 5x200 with full rest in the middle. My splits were 30.9 - 30.0 - 30.8 - 29.6 - 29.6. I felt very tense in the first two, then loosened up, but not 100%. Felt tension in the shoulders in the 4th repeat. Had Jeff massage them out, and it did help. It was gone in the last one, which I think helped me keep the pace in spite of the fatigue in the muscles. 30.8 felt easy, but 29.6 was all I could do.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:13. Julia ran 1.5 in 13:03.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:39. He was bumming around and being lazy at the start. I told him to get on the ball. He said he did not have to if he did not want to. I explained to him about choice and consequences like this: "You do not have to do anything if you do not want to. But you cannot choose what happens later. If you do not work, you will not learn to work. You'll grow up to be a bum. You will not be able to provide for your family. Nobody will want to marry you except a girl that is a bum herself." When he heard about the eternal consequences of being married to a bum he immediately sped up and ran with an honest effort to the finish. I hope he will remember this.

0.25 with Jacob in 2:32.

A.M. 10 in 1:19:41. Met Jeff on the trail. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:53. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:17.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:29. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35.

A.M. Jeff had another Lehi's dream experience, so I ran alone. 10.28 in 1:14:58. Hamstrings still stale from the 200s on Monday. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:48. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:06.  0.25 with Jacob in 2:45. Joseph asked to run the whole mile today, so we did. This was his first timed mile. He did 8:48 with the splits of 2:18, 2:16, 2:09, and 2:05, and was chatting the entire time. Joseph is an interesting kid. He often acts  lazy. But sometimes he decides to work.

A.M. Ran with Jeff. Met him on the trail. 10.1 in 1:17:44. Did a pickup to catch another guy whose name was also Jeff. Ran 300 in 58 (5:10 pace).

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:17. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:18. 1 with Joseph in 9:27. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.

A.M. 10.15 in 1:17:43. Some of it with Brian. Did a 900 pickup in 2:58 (5:17 pace) to shake out the legs. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M.  Retired my Water Clogs at 506 miles, and replaced them with Eva Clogs bought at Walmart for $7.   2 with Benjamin in 17:27. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:31. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:48. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:58.

A.M.20.36 with Jeff in my new Eva Clogs in 2:01:25. Yes, that's right, 5:57.8 average for the whole business. Only half-intentional. I was in a hurry to get to a baptism this morning, so I told Jeff let's go as fast as is reasonable with the idea that we would bum around at 6:20 pace for the first 5, then speed up to 6:10, then 6:00, and then 5:50 for the last 5. But 2 miles into it the pace hit 6:00 and never really got slower after that except a couple of miles at the end.

So we hit the first 5.09 in 31:18 (6:09 avg), then the next 5.09 in 30:18 (5:57). Then Jeff got really excited about breaking 2 hours for the entire run and started throwing occasional 83 quarters (5:32 pace). I would reign him in with a warning, he would slow down to 86-87 (5:44-5:48 pace). On the detour in the unmarked territory he was like a sports car driver on a freeway in the middle of Nevada with no police officers in sight. I did not have a number to scare him with, so my warnings only slowed him down there to around 5:38 average. We ended up with 29:12 for the next 5.09 stretch (5:44 avg).

This looked too good to be true. Jeff had run 10 miles the night before, and now he was being feisty in the later parts of an aggressively paced 20 miler. But I figured I did not want to hold Jeff back, so I told him to bring me to 4 miles to go mark, and then see if he could run 5:20 pace to the finish. We hit the next 1.05 in 5:58 (5:41 pace), and then Jeff went for it.

The remaining 4 miles was a lesson for both of us. Jeff learned more about fuel fatigue, while I learned more about neural fatigue. It was good to have those two types side by side so we can understand the difference better. In Jeff's case a surge to 5:20 quickly faded, all of a sudden he was struggling with 5:40 pace at first, a mile later with 6:00, then he could not do even 6:00, and the last mile was a disastrous 6:51. I almost caught him.

On my side, as soon as I lost contact I slowed down to 6:00, half a mile later it became 6:05, then 6:08, then with a couple of turns 6:15. However, because the fatigue was in the nervous system, the easing off of the pace allowed me to regroup and finish with a 5:58 last mile, which was slightly uphill, and had bridges and sharp turns. Seeing Jeff gradually come back gave me a boost. The last 5.09 was covered in 30:37 (6:01 avg).

Immediately after the run Jeff was dizzy and hungry, while I was actually too wired up to eat, and not dizzy at all.

Now here is the big question. I know what to do for fuel - just run more miles, and run as much as you can at marathon pace. But what do you do if the limiting factor is in the nervous system? More miles, more miles at marathon pace is often the wrong answer. More sleep is a better answer, but not quite the whole deal. Better form might be the answer, more particularly fixing the rhythm issues. Poor rhythm puts more stress on the nervous system. Then you can approach the issue from the aspect of raw power. Train at sub-5:00, and even hit sub-4:30 pace for short segments. But I think the main culprit is the poor rhythm, which is rooted in what I call "the structure". So we go back to targeted and intelligent massage that would hopefully fix "the structure".

Aside from the small lapse in the final miles I was happy with how this run went. I have not done too many 20 miles in my life in training on a course without a drop averaging sub-6:00.  It shows that I am in somewhat respectable shape.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 17:57. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:45. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:00. Benjamin ran 0.25 with Jacob.

Day of rest. Went to church. In Sacrament the talks were on the Atonement of Christ. Good talks. Taught in Sunday School - the lesson was on the life of Christ to go along with the talks. It just happened that I was teaching in the Elder's Quorum as well (second time this year) on creation.

A.M. 10.18 in 1:19:39 with Jeff. We were both tired from the 20 miler on Saturday + daylight savings and opened with a glorious 9:12 mile. I this is the slowest start in non-adverse conditions since a long time ago. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah. We actually caught them at the very end of the run, and I was able to time their last 100 meters. They were going around 10:40 pace.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:29. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:48. Benjamin picked it up in the last 300 to 5:50 pace. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:55. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:12. I think that is his record, if not, then only a second off.

A.M. 10.2 in 1:19:56. Met Jeff on the trail. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:16. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:17. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:39.

A.M. Jeff and Kimia were blessed with a baby girl last night, so I ran alone this morning. Did 10.18 in 1:15:53 with 4x800 in the middle with essentially full rest in 2:30.7, 2:31.7, 2:31.1, and 2:30.8. It was a bit colder when I started, so I wore pants. Later I wished I had been in shorts. In the first two I was fading in the last 200. Then I came up with a plan to avoid fading. Increase the effort at 300, and increase it even more at 600. That worked. I ran a slight negative split in the last 2. However I was not happy with how hard it was to maintain such a slow pace for so short.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin including a fartlek mile in 6:26.9 alternating 100 in 21 and 29 for the first 1000, then a steady pace to the finish (last quarter in 92). Hopefully this gave him some confidence that if he can fartlek through a 6:26 mile with this much pace variation, he can run it steady in 6:00.  1.5 with Julia in 12:57. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:35. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:40.

A.M. 10.18 in 1:13:56. I was wondering what I could have done in shorts yesterday. So I decided to wear shorts today and try one test 800 to see how it would feel. It was interesting. I opened with a 77, but then was able to give myself a kick in the behind and close in 73 finishing in 2:30.8. Then I decided to do one more, and this time ran 2:30.0 with even splits. So about the same as yesterday in pants. Interesting results. Possible explanations - pants do not slow you do as much as I think, at least when the temperatures are around 35, I was tired from yesterday, or I just ran with less effort today. The less effort explanation holds some credence as evidenced by fading yesterday in the last 200, but closing strong today.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:51. Julia ran the first 1.5 with us in 13:05.  0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:30.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ran 16 because tomorrow is Benjamin's chess tournament, and I will only be able to run 10. Total time was 1:58:47 as we had a very sluggish start. Picked it up in the last 3.04 and ran it in 18:03, slightly sub-6:00 average. It felt harder than what it should have. Probably due to the 800s while still not fully recovered from the 20 miler on Saturday. I think the lack of soreness in the muscles makes me greatly underestimate the stress of running 5:58 average for 20 miles and how long it takes to recover from it. I should probably keep my hard running in those 20 milers to 10 miles, definitely no more than 15.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin and Jenny in 16:50. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:51. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:22. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:26.  

A.M. Benjamin's chess tournament (Utah Elementary State Championship) . Spent all day there. Benjamin played 6 games, won the first 4, then lost the last 2, and took 12th place out of 92 players in the 5th grade. 

P.M. I sure thought I'd be feeling terrible after a busy day, and running late at night with a full stomach. Started with 2 with Benjamin in 17:49. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:27.  Jenny ran 2 with Sarah. Joseph and Jacob ran with Sarah as well. 

After that it was already 8:30, and I needed to finish the run, take a shower, and read the scriptures with Sarah before 10:00pm. So I ran brisk. Figured 6:40 was the slowest I could go and still get 10 in, so I did just that. I was expecting not to feel well, but quite on the contrary I was feeling great. I wondered if it was the adrenaline from the chess tournament, and it would end after about 4 miles, but it did not. I just kept cruising along at around 6:30-6:35 pace. With about 3 miles to go decided to shift gears to test the waters with the idea that if 6:00 pace felt hard I would back off immediately and run the slowest it takes to get home before curfew. In spite of the dark sub-6:00 pace felt very comfortable, so I just kept going. The tunnels and turns slowed me down more than normal in the dark, and then I had an interesting incident. Two guys with skateboards were under a bridge. As I was approaching them one of them asked me if I had seen anybody. I said no, and then immediately ran into the other that I did not see. So I lost a couple of seconds on that, but was able to get back into the rhythm. In spite of the obstacles my last mile was still a decent 5:48, and the total time for the last 3.04 was 17:54. Total time for 10.18 was 1:04:37.

Day of rest. Went to church. The talks in the sacrament meeting were on missionary work. Then they asked me to substitute in the Primary for the remainder of the meetings. The lesson was on Abraham and Isaac.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. Ended up with a total of 12 in 1:34:05. Did a couple of pickups. A mile that was supposed to be fat, but ended up a bit quicker in 5:33 with quarters of 85,85,83, and 80. Then we were messing around with the stride rate count. I came up with a new method of counting stride rate, more accurate that what I've used in the past. You time 180 steps then divide 180 by the time in seconds and multiply the result by 60. The reason this is more accurate is if you try to count how many steps you can take in 20 seconds you start your 20 seconds half way through a step and you end it half way as well. The time for 180 steps can be measured much more accurately. So on Saturday at 6:30 pace the stride rate was 177. Today at 8:00 pace it was 166. Then I wanted to know what Jeff's was at 5:00. So we did a pickup. First 200 in 34, but Jeff lost count. Then we used my method and ran for 54 seconds at around 4:40 pace. Jeff's stride rate was 200. I messed up my count, but I really did not care that much as I already know it is around 200-205 at those speeds. However, this was a good illustration as to why Jeff cannot sustain this for a half. It is very very difficult to sustain a stride rate above 190 for the half.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 17:10. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:02. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:37. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:52.

A.M. 10.18 with Jeff in 1:14:41. We did a couple of pickups. First, a mile that was supposed to be "fat", but Jeff accidentally opened with a 75 and I did not stop him even though I knew we were going too fast. So he saw the split and eased off to 78, and then fell asleep to 81 with the help of some mild headwind. Then I realized that it would be nice to crack 5:10, so I told Jeff I wanted to do that. We ran the next 200 in 38, followed by 35 (quarter in 73), and finished the mile in 5:07.3. I was happy with how easy it felt given that last week I struggled with 4x800 in 2:30.

Then Jeff wanted to feel faster pace, so we ran a quarter in 65.6. To put things in perspective. This is on pace for 27:20 10 K. Fast, but Bekele would lap you in his world record run. I wonder how many runners really comprehend that you could be running 4:22 pace for 6 miles and get lapped! And neither one of us can hold this pace for even a mile.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Sarah and I started a training group for kids. Primarily directed at the home schooled kids, but we take everybody, actually both kids and adults. We had our first run today. About 20 kids ran.  It was a little chaotic as we did not quite know how to deal with so many kids of different ages and abilities, but we managed. Nobody got lost. I ended up running 0.5 with Joseph in 4:27, then 2 in 16:58 shepherding a group that started big, but then thinned out. Benjamin ran 2 in 16:35. Julia ran 1.5 in 12:48. Jacob ran 0.25 with Sarah.

A.M. 10.48 in 1:16:54. Triggered a deer repelling device while running past a house in the detour section of the trail, and thought about deer, the sunrise, and the length of the run. My mind is very good at associating context, so I started singing "Doe, a deer, a female deer, Ray, a drop of golden sun. Me, a name I call myself, Far, a long long way to run".

P.M. 2 with Benjamin including a workout. We ran 1 mile in a 300-100 fartlek  for the first 0.75, then he gave the best he had for the last quarter. The splits were 67-28-66-30-67-26 with 4:44 at 0.75, and then the last quarter in 91. Total time 6:15.4. I think we've made some progress in overcoming his mental block against sustained 6:00 pace. Later 2 with Jenny in 16:29. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 12:31. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:37. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:28.

A.M. Met Jeff on the trail. 10.2  in 1:18:59. Did a fat mile in 5:45 with a 180 turn in the middle. Yes, the trail is ripped up at a bad place for us, so we could not do it without a 180 or bridges, and we chose 180. Two geeks as we are, we discussed the effects of a 180 turn for the rest of the run.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. Ran with the kids running group. Ran to and back from the park with William in the stroller, that gave me 0.75. Then did 0.5 with Joseph and others in 4:42, and 2 in 16:23 with Julia running 1.5 in 12:33. Benjamin did 2 miles in 15:41 with the last quarter in 89. Then he ran 100 in 17.7, two older kids did in in 15.4 and 15.7. Then I took two older kids for a world record marathon pace demonstration, and we ran 100 in 17.9 (4:46.4 pace) which is slightly slower (would give you 2:05:09), but close enough. I think our society in general would do better in a number of ways if more people knew exactly how fast the world record marathon pace is, not just looking at the numbers and saying "Wow!", but actually trying it for as long as they can hold it while thinking that somebody runs all 26 miles like that.

I ended up with 3.35 for the run.

A.M. Both Jeff and I slept in. So I ran alone. 10.18 in 1:12:39 with 1.5 in the middle in 8:42. It felt harder than it should have.

P.M. 3.2 with Benjamin, Jenny, and Julia in 27:06 to Walgreens to get them new clogs and back. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:35.

Sarah had the ultrasound today. This is going to be a boy. We decided to name him Stephen.  There were two Stephens in my family who died at the age of 3 back in the 1920s in the Soviet Union. A disciple of Christ by the same name was one of the few people in the recorded history of mankind to have seen God the Father and the Son (the story is Acts 7 in the New Testament). We also hope that our Steve will have the talent and the work ethic of three great British Steves: Steve Cram, Steve Ovett, and Steve Jones. If you run and do not know how they are, I would encourage some search-engine aided enlightenment. And of course, we are not forgetting our long time family friend Steve Ashbaker.  

Sarah went to the Pennies by the Inch dinner yesterday and heard a story about a blind man who worked menial jobs all his life, saved $1 million and donated all of it to Pennies by the Inch in his will. I found that story fascinating and did a bit of math. Suppose somebody with low income wants to do a similar feat. Let's say he is able to save $200 a month over 40 years. Let's say he does not want to play any games with the stock market and risky investments and just uses CDs and money market. With the current economy he will be lucky to get 3% interest this way. At 3% interest he will have about $185,000 when he retires. He will not be donating $1 million to any causes when he dies. At 10% interest he will have about $1.2 million.

The question I have is why we clamor for lower interest rates. What do we accomplish with that? We in essence rob the folks that have been working hard and saving their entire life to enable those who currently have a source of income to buy a house that is two times the size they need for four times its worth. Do we really understand that?

A.M. When my alarm went off this morning at 6:20 I seriously was annoyed because I thought it was Sunday. I was looking forward to a day of rest. Yet, when I woke up more fully I realized I had a 20 mile run ahead of me. I thought it was not a good sign that I felt this way, and wondered if maybe there some some lingering fatigue, but from the way the run went I have to say it was more in the area of imagination. Sometimes I feel tired for no other reason than having too many memories.

We did 20.1 in 2:19:48 with 3x3 miles in the middle on our much valued 1.5 mile stretch of the trail from the bridge construction to the end. The target was 5:40 pace. I admonished Jeff not to overachieve and he tried as hard as he could. We started after a 4 mile warm up and did 1.5 recovery jog in between at a bit slower than 8:00 pace. The first one was 16:44.0 with the splits of 5:38, 5:33, 5:33. Second, 16:41.3 (5:33, 5:35, 5:33). On the last one I told Jeff to pace perfectly at 84 per quarter, time every 100 if he had to, then after 2 miles 81, 81, 80, in the last one pace me for 78 but then with 200 to go hit the gas and try to run 30. We ended up doing 5:34, 5:36 (I did have to verbally adjust the pace a few times), then 78, 81, 80, 79 (5:18, 16:28) for me. Jeff dropped me with 500 to go and ended up running 37,30 in the last quarter with the last mile in 5:06 and total time of 16:16.

Overall I was pleased with the workout. I thought 5:40 pace would challenging enough but I was able to average 5:32.6. In spite of going faster than planned I was able to run relaxed and I proved that it was true relaxation, not an illusion of relaxation, with the last mile in 5:18. I was able to maintain the pace after losing contact with Jeff. Before the last repeat I admonished Jeff not to do a 78 quarter immediately after the 2 mile mark thinking it would ruin my last mile and I would fade to 5:25.  He did it anyway. If I had not reigned him in after the first 0.1 it would have been  74. But I did not fade, and instead was able to find a relaxed groove around 5:20 pace that I was able to maintain to the finish. And it felt good to be headed for a very low 17:00 5 K in the last repeat in the middle of a long run off a conservative start.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 2 with Benjamin in 16:41. 1.5 with Julia in 12:58. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:47. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:46.

Day of rest. Went to church. The Sacrament meeting talks were on resurrection. The lesson in Sunday school was on priesthood. The lesson in the Elder Quorum was on Elder Uchtdorf's talk in the last General Conference "Two Principles for Any Economy". Those principles are work and learn. If only everybody would listen to the Lord's prophets we would have been out of the economic crisis a long time ago. In fact, we would never have been in one in the first place.

A.M. Easy recovery run with Jeff. 10.18 in 1:17:50. Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M.  2 with Benjamin in 17:31. Julia ran 1.5 in 13:02. 0.5 with Joseph in the direction of the library. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:56.

A.M. 10.38 in 1;14:58. Did 1.5 in the middle in 8:39.8. Felt OK. Started with a 5:51 mile while somewhat trying to run 5:48 pace. Got a little mad at the 5:48 guy because he took advantage of the wind to gap me. So decided to show him who is the boss and ran the last 2 quarters in 84 each to beat him.

P.M. Ran with our running group. Ended up with a total of  3.5 miles. Benjamin ran a total of 2.5 with 2 miles in 15:54. Jenny did a total of 2.5 with 2 miles in around 16:15. Joseph ran 0.5 in 4:38. Jacob did 0.25 with Sarah. Julia ran 0.5 fairly quick, around 4:10 or so, and then a mile in 8:50.

A.M. 10.25 in 1:18:58. Met Jeff on the trail. An interesting thing happened. Right as I walked out of my house around 6:05 AM I saw another runner and invited him to join me. His name was Dax. As I talked to him it turned out that he served his mission in Madagaskar. Then I realized something interesting. Over the last 10 years I have approached a good number of potential training partners while running. Out of those I get a near 100% return missionary rate. This is higher than what I got from talking to men ages 21 and over inside the church! Go figure. You would expect that even if Provo were 100% LDS, with the 50% inactivity rate the missionary probability of a man inside the church would be higher than the missionary probability of a random man running. How do you explain that?

Did a mile pickup in 5:30.8 starting from the DI bridge. Felt smooth, but not motivated to go any faster. Felt like 5:30 pace was a fine balance of fast and relaxed.

Jenny ran 2.5 with Sarah.

P.M. 3.6 with Benjamin to chess club and back in 28:05. 1.5 with Julia in 13:19. 0.5 with Joseph in 4:38. 0.25 with Jacob in 2:36.